An adorable — and powerful — stowaway is currently on board SpaceX’s Crew-1 flight, floating freely inside the company’s spacecraft as it heads toward the International Space Station. A plush Baby Yoda — yes, technically The Child — from The Mandalorian can be seen in live shots from inside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, bobbing about inside the cabin and bumping into the four crew members on the flight.
The inclusion of Baby Yoda is part of a long tradition in human spaceflight. The toy is what is known as the flight’s “zero G indicator,” a small object that is used to determine when the spacecraft is in orbit and has reached a microgravity environment. When the Crew Dragon separated from its Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday, the Baby Yoda rose from…